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Step 1: FPGEC
Certification
Step 2: Internship
Step 3: NAPLEX Examination
Step 4: MPJE/CPJE Examination
The USA is the dream country for many people around the world. This country is called the 'Land of Opportunity.' In search of opportunities, many pharmacy students also want to become registered pharmacists in the USA. Today’s article is for them. Hopefully, it will provide you with some valuable information.
How to become a registered pharmacist in USA?
In USA, pharmacy education is minimum of 5 years. So those who have completed their pharmacy degree of 5 years or more are only eligible for this certification. B.Pharm students who have completed their degree which is of 4 years duration are not eligible for this examination. They have to complete their master’s degree. Then only they will be eligible to get this certification.
Before starting the main procedure, you have to complete some tasks. They are:
In order to get this certification, candidates have to registered themselves on NABP portal, which stands for National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. After registering themselves onto this portal, e-profile will be generated. After generating e-profile, they will give profile ID which will be the identification number for the candidate when the documents will be sent.
Next task is to assess the academic credientials evaluated by the Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE). NABP recommends ECE only to get evaluation of the academic degrees as well as official transcripts. In this step, what candidate has to do is to submit all the official transcript of their education along with the translation certificate if the degree is in the regional language and to pay evaluation fee.
This step should be completed in order to get their academy credientials. Most important point over here is these all documents need to be sent via officials which is college or university directly to the ECE examination or evaluating authority. And these documents should be properly sealed, signed and stumped. Any tempered document will not be considered to evaluation by ECE evaluating authority. Once the candidate's academic credential is done, they will get ECE report.
Then candidates have to qualify TOEFL examination. TOEFL iBT which stands for Internet Based Testing is mandatory requirement to work or to practice as the pharmacist in USA and to prove language proficiency. This TOEFL is complies of four parts: reading, listening, writing and speaking. The score will be given in 30. In order to qualify, a candidate must obtain:
22 marks out of 30 in reading
21 out of 30 in listening
24 out of 30 in writing and
26 out of 30 in speaking.
If candidate get this score, then the TOEFL will give a TOEFL score which he needs to submitted along with academic crediential for the evaluation of these documents whether it is appropriate or not. So, in order to appear final examination that is FPGEC examination, these steps need to be completed.
Now in order appear for this examination candidate has to send several documents along with ECE report and TOEFL scorecard. They also need to send attested application form, notarized photo ID, and unrestricted permanent licence from their particular province or state.
Now what is this unrestricted permanent licence? Say for example, if a candidate has completed PharmD in Gujarat which is a state of India. In Gujarat, after obtaining the PharmD degree candidate has to register to Gujarat State Pharmacy Council along with the degree to get the licence from Gujarat state Pharmacy council. Upon submission of this licence back to the Gujarat state pharmacy council because now candidate is moving from India to United State of America, Gujarat state Pharmacy council will generate good standing certificate. This good standing certificate along with ECE report TOEFL score and not arise photo ID and attested copy of application for FPGEE examination need to be submitted on NABP portal for the evaluation.
This evaluation will be of a 2-years of duration. So, within this 2 years candidate has to produce all these valid documents to the authority. Once the authority validates these documents, authority will notify on NABP e-profile of a candidate to appear for the FPGEE examination. From the date of notification after completing of this documentary evaluation, candidate have two years to complete this FPGEE examination.
Let's discuss the step-by-step procedure to get registered as a pharmacist in USA.
STEP 1: FPGEC Certification
FPGEC stands for Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Committee. This certification is mandatory to all the pharmacy graduate who obtain their pharmacy degree outside of USA. FPGEE examination is comprise of 200 questions and there are 4 main domains from where the questions will be asked. They are:
1. Biomedical domain
2. Clinical domain
3. Social behavioral and administrative domain
4. Pharmaceutical domain.
This examination is 5.5 hours long examination where actual examination is 4.5 hours and 1 hour is for the complitation of formalities like signing the non-disclosure agreement, complete the post examination survey and reading the instructions of how to answer the questions which will be asked during the examination. This examination is conducted once in a year. So, candidates have two chance to complete the examination. Those who fails to clear FPGEE examination into congecutive attempt need to repeat the same procedure again starting from the ECE evaluation and TOEFL passes which is required to appear for the FPGE exam.
Once this candidate is qualified, FPGEE certificate is given by the National Association of Board Pharmacy. This certificate does not indicate that a candidate can practice as a pharmacist in the United States of America. It is just an equivalency certificate which shows that a candidate who has obtained a degree outside the United States of America is equivalent to those candidates who have obtained a degree from the United States of America.
STEP 2: Internship
Internship of 1500 hours in a community as well as clinical setup is mandatory in order to get eligible for the NAPLEX examination. Now foreign pharmacy graduates need working visa in order to conduct this internship and to get this internship done they need to apply for the interim license. After getting interim license based on the FPGEE certificate, candidate can perform 1500 hours of internship in the specific province where they wanted to register as a pharmacist. These 1500 hours internship will vary province to province. But on an average, 1500 hours of internship is mandatory. Visitor visa and tourist visa will not be eligible as internship is considered as a work in United States of America. After successful completion of 1500 hours of internship, candidate is eligible for the NAPLEX examination which is step number three.
STEP 3: NAPLEX Examination
NAPLEX examination need to be cleared by the candidate where NAPLEX stands for North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination. NABP portal where candidate has created e-profile, they can opt for the next NAPLEX examination via that portal only.
NAPLEX examination is comprised of 225 questions from that 200 questions will be evaluated and 25 questions is for pre-testing. But the candidate cannot identify what are those 25 questions, so the candidate has to appear for the 225 questions in order to pass this examination. This examination is a 6 hours long examination, where clinical-based as well as case-study-based questions will be asked. So, the PharmD graduates have the upper hand to clear this examination as the syllabus of PharmD is designed in such a way where case-based studies and case-based evaluation will be taught so that they can easily clear this examination.
NAPLEX examination is having maximum 5 attempts and the waiting period for two consecutive attempts is of 45 days. So, if candidate has appeared for the NAPLEX examination and if he fails to clear this exam he has to wait for 45 days to re-attempt for the NAPLEX examination. In one year, a candidate can appear for maximum of three times. After one year, candidate has two more attempts to clear the NAPLEX examination. If candidate is failing to do so, candidate has to appear for the whole process again and can appear for the NAPLEX examination after completion of step 1 as well as step 2.
This NAPLEX examination is very much mandatory to clear in order to get registered as a pharmacist in United States of America. The application fee for this exam is $100 and the examination fee for this exam is $475. Those who are having U.S. armed force background, they will entitled to get certain discount in this examination fee and sometime the examination fee will be waived off for the U.S. armed force officials or their spouses.
While opting for the NAPLEX examination, candidate can select multiple provinces where NAPLEX will send the result. Actually, NAPLEX examination authority is giving a freedom to transfer the score of NAPLEX to more than one province. So, while a candidate is opting for the NAPLEX examination, candidate has to choose for which province they are appearing for the NAPLEX. If candidate chooses one state, then the NAPLEX result will be sent to that particular province. But if candidate wish to register in a simultaneously two or more states, then candidate has to opt for the score which need to be sent to more than one province. And this need to be informed to the NABP portal or the authority in advance. The timeline to opt for the score of NAPLEX which need to be sent to more than one province is 89 days. So, after completion of NAPLEX exam, within the 89 days, a candidate has to select to which province the NAPLEX score need to be sent. This will help a candidate to save time if candidate fails to clear the jurisprudence exam of a specific province and wish to register as a pharmacist in another province.
This score transfer via NAPLEX is chargeable. So, if candidate wish to transfer the score to more than one province, then candidate has to pay province-wise charge to the authority.
STEP 4: MPJE/CPJE Examination
After clearing the NAPLEX, the candidate has to appear for the jurisprudence exam. So, discussing about step number 4, that is MPJE/CPJE examination. So, if the candidate clears the NAPLEX examination, jurisprudence examination, which is talking about the law and regulation of a specific province to practice as a pharmacist, need to be cleared in order to practice and obtain the license from the state authority.
MPJE exam stands for Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination and CPJE stands for California Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination. So apart from California, if a candidate wishes to register in any province of United States of America, they need to appear for MPJE examination. This MPJE examination is comprised of 120 questions among which 100 questions will be evaluated to give the pass or fail result and 20 questions will be of pre-testing question. This examination is of 2.5 hours long and there is no scheduled break is given. However, candidate can take a break but no additional time is given to complete this examination.
Again, candidate have maximum 5 attempts to clear MPJE examination whereas the waiting period over here is 30 days. If a candidate fails from the first attempt, after 30 days, he can reappear for this MPJE examination.
For California Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination, there are only 90 questions asked, all multiple-choice-based questions. If candidate can clear this examination, candidate can obtain license from the California province and work as a pharmacist in California.
This is about the jurisprudence exam. The application fee for this exam is $100, whereas the examination fee for this exam is $150. After the successful completion of this examination, the candidate can ask the state authority to issue the license, and after issuing the license, the candidate can work as a registered pharmacist in any pharmacy store in the United States of America.
Step 2: Internship
Step 3: NAPLEX Examination
Step 4: MPJE/CPJE Examination
The USA is the dream country for many people around the world. This country is called the 'Land of Opportunity.' In search of opportunities, many pharmacy students also want to become registered pharmacists in the USA. Today’s article is for them. Hopefully, it will provide you with some valuable information.
How to become a registered pharmacist in USA?
In USA, pharmacy education is minimum of 5 years. So those who have completed their pharmacy degree of 5 years or more are only eligible for this certification. B.Pharm students who have completed their degree which is of 4 years duration are not eligible for this examination. They have to complete their master’s degree. Then only they will be eligible to get this certification.
Before starting the main procedure, you have to complete some tasks. They are:
In order to get this certification, candidates have to registered themselves on NABP portal, which stands for National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. After registering themselves onto this portal, e-profile will be generated. After generating e-profile, they will give profile ID which will be the identification number for the candidate when the documents will be sent.
Next task is to assess the academic credientials evaluated by the Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE). NABP recommends ECE only to get evaluation of the academic degrees as well as official transcripts. In this step, what candidate has to do is to submit all the official transcript of their education along with the translation certificate if the degree is in the regional language and to pay evaluation fee.
This step should be completed in order to get their academy credientials. Most important point over here is these all documents need to be sent via officials which is college or university directly to the ECE examination or evaluating authority. And these documents should be properly sealed, signed and stumped. Any tempered document will not be considered to evaluation by ECE evaluating authority. Once the candidate's academic credential is done, they will get ECE report.
Then candidates have to qualify TOEFL examination. TOEFL iBT which stands for Internet Based Testing is mandatory requirement to work or to practice as the pharmacist in USA and to prove language proficiency. This TOEFL is complies of four parts: reading, listening, writing and speaking. The score will be given in 30. In order to qualify, a candidate must obtain:
22 marks out of 30 in reading
21 out of 30 in listening
24 out of 30 in writing and
26 out of 30 in speaking.
If candidate get this score, then the TOEFL will give a TOEFL score which he needs to submitted along with academic crediential for the evaluation of these documents whether it is appropriate or not. So, in order to appear final examination that is FPGEC examination, these steps need to be completed.
Now in order appear for this examination candidate has to send several documents along with ECE report and TOEFL scorecard. They also need to send attested application form, notarized photo ID, and unrestricted permanent licence from their particular province or state.
Now what is this unrestricted permanent licence? Say for example, if a candidate has completed PharmD in Gujarat which is a state of India. In Gujarat, after obtaining the PharmD degree candidate has to register to Gujarat State Pharmacy Council along with the degree to get the licence from Gujarat state Pharmacy council. Upon submission of this licence back to the Gujarat state pharmacy council because now candidate is moving from India to United State of America, Gujarat state Pharmacy council will generate good standing certificate. This good standing certificate along with ECE report TOEFL score and not arise photo ID and attested copy of application for FPGEE examination need to be submitted on NABP portal for the evaluation.
This evaluation will be of a 2-years of duration. So, within this 2 years candidate has to produce all these valid documents to the authority. Once the authority validates these documents, authority will notify on NABP e-profile of a candidate to appear for the FPGEE examination. From the date of notification after completing of this documentary evaluation, candidate have two years to complete this FPGEE examination.
Let's discuss the step-by-step procedure to get registered as a pharmacist in USA.
STEP 1: FPGEC Certification
FPGEC stands for Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Committee. This certification is mandatory to all the pharmacy graduate who obtain their pharmacy degree outside of USA. FPGEE examination is comprise of 200 questions and there are 4 main domains from where the questions will be asked. They are:
1. Biomedical domain
2. Clinical domain
3. Social behavioral and administrative domain
4. Pharmaceutical domain.
This examination is 5.5 hours long examination where actual examination is 4.5 hours and 1 hour is for the complitation of formalities like signing the non-disclosure agreement, complete the post examination survey and reading the instructions of how to answer the questions which will be asked during the examination. This examination is conducted once in a year. So, candidates have two chance to complete the examination. Those who fails to clear FPGEE examination into congecutive attempt need to repeat the same procedure again starting from the ECE evaluation and TOEFL passes which is required to appear for the FPGE exam.
Once this candidate is qualified, FPGEE certificate is given by the National Association of Board Pharmacy. This certificate does not indicate that a candidate can practice as a pharmacist in the United States of America. It is just an equivalency certificate which shows that a candidate who has obtained a degree outside the United States of America is equivalent to those candidates who have obtained a degree from the United States of America.
STEP 2: Internship
Internship of 1500 hours in a community as well as clinical setup is mandatory in order to get eligible for the NAPLEX examination. Now foreign pharmacy graduates need working visa in order to conduct this internship and to get this internship done they need to apply for the interim license. After getting interim license based on the FPGEE certificate, candidate can perform 1500 hours of internship in the specific province where they wanted to register as a pharmacist. These 1500 hours internship will vary province to province. But on an average, 1500 hours of internship is mandatory. Visitor visa and tourist visa will not be eligible as internship is considered as a work in United States of America. After successful completion of 1500 hours of internship, candidate is eligible for the NAPLEX examination which is step number three.
STEP 3: NAPLEX Examination
NAPLEX examination need to be cleared by the candidate where NAPLEX stands for North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination. NABP portal where candidate has created e-profile, they can opt for the next NAPLEX examination via that portal only.
NAPLEX examination is comprised of 225 questions from that 200 questions will be evaluated and 25 questions is for pre-testing. But the candidate cannot identify what are those 25 questions, so the candidate has to appear for the 225 questions in order to pass this examination. This examination is a 6 hours long examination, where clinical-based as well as case-study-based questions will be asked. So, the PharmD graduates have the upper hand to clear this examination as the syllabus of PharmD is designed in such a way where case-based studies and case-based evaluation will be taught so that they can easily clear this examination.
NAPLEX examination is having maximum 5 attempts and the waiting period for two consecutive attempts is of 45 days. So, if candidate has appeared for the NAPLEX examination and if he fails to clear this exam he has to wait for 45 days to re-attempt for the NAPLEX examination. In one year, a candidate can appear for maximum of three times. After one year, candidate has two more attempts to clear the NAPLEX examination. If candidate is failing to do so, candidate has to appear for the whole process again and can appear for the NAPLEX examination after completion of step 1 as well as step 2.
This NAPLEX examination is very much mandatory to clear in order to get registered as a pharmacist in United States of America. The application fee for this exam is $100 and the examination fee for this exam is $475. Those who are having U.S. armed force background, they will entitled to get certain discount in this examination fee and sometime the examination fee will be waived off for the U.S. armed force officials or their spouses.
While opting for the NAPLEX examination, candidate can select multiple provinces where NAPLEX will send the result. Actually, NAPLEX examination authority is giving a freedom to transfer the score of NAPLEX to more than one province. So, while a candidate is opting for the NAPLEX examination, candidate has to choose for which province they are appearing for the NAPLEX. If candidate chooses one state, then the NAPLEX result will be sent to that particular province. But if candidate wish to register in a simultaneously two or more states, then candidate has to opt for the score which need to be sent to more than one province. And this need to be informed to the NABP portal or the authority in advance. The timeline to opt for the score of NAPLEX which need to be sent to more than one province is 89 days. So, after completion of NAPLEX exam, within the 89 days, a candidate has to select to which province the NAPLEX score need to be sent. This will help a candidate to save time if candidate fails to clear the jurisprudence exam of a specific province and wish to register as a pharmacist in another province.
This score transfer via NAPLEX is chargeable. So, if candidate wish to transfer the score to more than one province, then candidate has to pay province-wise charge to the authority.
STEP 4: MPJE/CPJE Examination
After clearing the NAPLEX, the candidate has to appear for the jurisprudence exam. So, discussing about step number 4, that is MPJE/CPJE examination. So, if the candidate clears the NAPLEX examination, jurisprudence examination, which is talking about the law and regulation of a specific province to practice as a pharmacist, need to be cleared in order to practice and obtain the license from the state authority.
MPJE exam stands for Multi-State Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination and CPJE stands for California Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination. So apart from California, if a candidate wishes to register in any province of United States of America, they need to appear for MPJE examination. This MPJE examination is comprised of 120 questions among which 100 questions will be evaluated to give the pass or fail result and 20 questions will be of pre-testing question. This examination is of 2.5 hours long and there is no scheduled break is given. However, candidate can take a break but no additional time is given to complete this examination.
Again, candidate have maximum 5 attempts to clear MPJE examination whereas the waiting period over here is 30 days. If a candidate fails from the first attempt, after 30 days, he can reappear for this MPJE examination.
For California Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination, there are only 90 questions asked, all multiple-choice-based questions. If candidate can clear this examination, candidate can obtain license from the California province and work as a pharmacist in California.
This is about the jurisprudence exam. The application fee for this exam is $100, whereas the examination fee for this exam is $150. After the successful completion of this examination, the candidate can ask the state authority to issue the license, and after issuing the license, the candidate can work as a registered pharmacist in any pharmacy store in the United States of America.
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